rspec-rails-2
rspec-2 for rails-3 with lightweight extensions to each
Note: Use rspec-rails-1.3 for rails-2.
Install
gem install rspec-rails
This installs the following gems:
rspec-core
rspec-expectations
rspec-mocks
rspec-rails
Configure
Add rspec-rails
to the :test
and :development
groups in the Gemfile:
group :test, :development do
gem "rspec-rails", "~> 2.0"
end
It needs to be in the :development
group to expose generators and rake
tasks without having to type RAILS_ENV=test
.
Now you can run:
rails generate rspec:install
This adds the spec directory and some skeleton files, including the "rake spec" task.
Generators
If you type script/rails generate
, the only RSpec generator you'll actually
see is rspec:install
. That's because RSpec is registered with Rails as the
test framework, so whenever you generate application components like models,
controllers, etc, RSpec specs are generated instead of Test::Unit tests.
Please note that the generators are there to help you get started, but they are
no substitute for writing your own examples, and they are only guaranteed to
work out of the box for the default scenario (ActiveRecord
& Webrat
).
Webrat and Capybara
You can choose between webrat or capybara for simulating a browser, automating a browser, or setting expectations using the matchers they supply. Just add your preference to the Gemfile:
gem "webrat"
gem "capybara"
See http://rubydoc.info/gems/rspec-rails/file/Capybara.md for more info on Capybara integration.
Living on edge
Bundler makes it a snap to use the latest code for any gem your app depends on. For
rspec-rails, you'll need to point bundler to the git repositories for rspec-rails
and the other rspec related gems it depends on:
gem "rspec-rails", :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails.git"
gem "rspec", :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec.git"
gem "rspec-core", :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec-core.git"
gem "rspec-expectations", :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec-expectations.git"
gem "rspec-mocks", :git => "git://github.com/rspec/rspec-mocks.git"
Run bundle install
and you'll have whatever is in git right now. Any time you
want to update to a newer head, just run bundle update
.
Keep in mind that each of these codebases is under active development, which means that its entirely possible that you'll pull from these repos and they won't play nice together. If playing nice is important to you, stick to the published gems.
Backwards compatibility
This is a complete rewrite of the rspec-rails extension designed to work with rails-3.x and rspec-2.x. It will not work with older versions of either rspec or rails. Many of the APIs from rspec-rails-1 have been carried forward, however, so upgrading an app from rspec-1/rails-2, while not pain-free, should not send you to the doctor with a migraine.
Known issues
See http://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails/issues
Request Specs
Request specs live in spec/requests, spec/api and spec/integration, and mix in behavior ActionDispatch::Integration::Runner, which is the basis for Rails' integration tests. The intent is to specify one or more request/response cycles from end to end using a black box approach.
require 'spec_helper'
describe "home page" do
it "displays the user's username after successful login" do
user = User.create!(:username => "jdoe", :password => "secret")
get "/login"
assert_select "form.login" do
assert_select "input[name=?]", "username"
assert_select "input[name=?]", "password"
assert_select "input[type=?]", "submit"
end
post "/login", :username => "jdoe", :password => "secret"
assert_select ".header .username", :text => "jdoe"
end
end
This example uses only standard Rails and RSpec API's, but many RSpec/Rails users like to use extension libraries like FactoryGirl and Capybara:
require 'spec_helper'
describe "home page" do
it "displays the user's username after successful login" do
user = FactoryGirl.create(:user, :username => "jdoe", :password => "secret")
visit "/login"
fill_in "Username", :with => "jdoe"
fill_in "Password", :with => "secret"
"Log in"
expect(page).to have_selector(".header .username", :text => "jdoe")
end
end
FactoryGirl decouples this example from changes to validation requirements, which can be encoded into the underlying factory definition without requiring changes to this example.
Among other benefits, Capybara binds the form post to the generated HTML, which means we don't need to specify them separately.
There are several other Ruby libs that implement the factory pattern or provide a DSL for request specs (a.k.a. acceptance or integration specs), but FactoryGirl and Capybara seem to be the most widely used. Whether you choose these or other libs, we strongly recommend using something for each of these roles.
Controller Specs
Controller specs live in spec/controllers, and mix in ActionController::TestCase::Behavior, which is the basis for Rails' functional tests.
with fixtures
require 'spec_helper'
describe WidgetsController do
describe "GET index" do
fixtures :widgets
it "assigns all widgets to @widgets" do
get :index
expect(assigns(:widgets)).to eq(Widget.all)
end
end
end
with a factory
require 'spec_helper'
describe WidgetsController do
describe "GET index" do
it "assigns all widgets to @widgets" do
= FactoryGirl.create(:widget)
get :index
expect(assigns(:widgets)).to eq([])
end
end
end
with stubs
require 'spec_helper'
describe WidgetsController do
describe "GET index" do
it "assigns all widgets to @widgets" do
= stub_model(Widget)
Widget.stub(:all) { [] }
get :index
expect(assigns(:widgets)).to eq([])
end
end
end
matchers
In addition to the stock matchers from rspec-expectations, controller specs add these matchers, which delegate to rails' assertions:
expect(response).to render_template(*args)
# => delegates to assert_template(*args)
expect(response).to redirect_to(destination)
# => delegates to assert_redirected_to(destination)
isolation from views
RSpec's preferred approach to spec'ing controller behaviour is to isolate the controller from its collaborators. By default, therefore, controller example groups do not render the views in your app. Due to the way Rails searches for view templates, the template still needs to exist, but it won't actually be loaded.
NOTE that this is different from rspec-rails-1 with rails-2, which did not require the presence of the file at all. Due to changes in rails-3, this was no longer feasible in rspec-rails-2.
render_views
If you prefer a more integrated approach, similar to that of Rails'
functional tests, you can tell controller groups to render the views in the
app with the render_views
declaration:
require 'spec_helper'
describe WidgetsController do
render_views
# ...
Upgrade note
render_views
replaces integrate_views
from rspec-rails-1.3
assigns
Use assigns(key)
to express expectations about instance variables that a controller
assigns to the view in the course of an action:
get :index
expect(assigns(:widgets)).to eq(expected_value)
View specs
View specs live in spec/views, and mix in ActionView::TestCase::Behavior.
require 'spec_helper'
describe "events/index" do
it "renders _event partial for each event" do
assign(:events, [stub_model(Event), stub_model(Event)])
render
expect(view).to render_template(:partial => "_event", :count => 2)
end
end
describe "events/show" do
it "displays the event location" do
assign(:event, stub_model(Event,
:location => "Chicago"
))
render
expect(rendered).to include("Chicago")
end
end
View specs infer the controller name and path from the path to the view template. e.g. if the template is "events/index.html.erb" then:
controller.controller_path == "events"
controller.request.path_parameters[:controller] == "events"
This means that most of the time you don't need to set these values. When spec'ing a partial that is included across different controllers, you may need to override these values before rendering the view.
To provide a layout for the render, you'll need to specify both the template and the layout explicitly. For example:
render :template => "events/show", :layout => "layouts/application"
assign(key, val)
Use this to assign values to instance variables in the view:
assign(:widget, stub_model(Widget))
render
The code above assigns stub_model(Widget)
to the @widget
variable in the view, and then
renders the view.
Note that because view specs mix in ActionView::TestCase
behavior, any
instance variables you set will be transparently propagated into your views
(similar to how instance variables you set in controller actions are made
available in views). For example:
@widget = stub_model(Widget)
render # @widget is available inside the view
RSpec doesn't officially support this pattern, which only works as a
side-effect of the inclusion of ActionView::TestCase
. Be aware that it may be
made unavailable in the future.
Upgrade note
# rspec-rails-1.x
assigns[key] = value
# rspec-rails-2.x
assign(key, value)
rendered
This represents the rendered view.
render
expect(rendered).to match /Some text expected to appear on the page/
Upgrade note
# rspec-rails-1.x
render
response.should xxx
# rspec-rails-2.x
render
rendered.should xxx
# rspec-rails-2.x with expect syntax
render
expect(rendered).to xxx
Model specs
Model specs live in spec/models.
require 'spec_helper'
describe Article do
describe ".recent" do
it "includes articles published less than one week ago" do
article = Article.create!(:published_at => Date.today - 1.week + 1.second)
expect(Article.recent).to eq([article])
end
it "excludes articles published at midnight one week ago" do
article = Article.create!(:published_at => Date.today - 1.week)
expect(Article.recent).to be_empty
end
it "excludes articles published more than one week ago" do
article = Article.create!(:published_at => Date.today - 1.week - 1.second)
expect(Article.recent).to be_empty
end
end
end
Routing specs
Routing specs live in spec/routing.
require 'spec_helper'
describe "routing to profiles" do
it "routes /profile/:username to profile#show for username" do
expect(:get => "/profiles/jsmith").to route_to(
:controller => "profiles",
:action => "show",
:username => "jsmith"
)
end
it "does not expose a list of profiles" do
expect(:get => "/profiles").not_to be_routable
end
end
Upgrade note
route_for
from rspec-rails-1.x is gone. Use route_to
and be_routable
instead.
Helper specs
Helper specs live in spec/helpers, and mix in ActionView::TestCase::Behavior.
Provides a helper
object which mixes in the helper module being spec'd, along
with ApplicationHelper
(if present).
require 'spec_helper'
describe EventsHelper do
describe "#link_to_event" do
it "displays the title, and formatted date" do
event = Event.new("Ruby Kaigi", Date.new(2010, 8, 27))
# helper is an instance of ActionView::Base configured with the
# EventsHelper and all of Rails' built-in helpers
expect(helper.link_to_event).to match /Ruby Kaigi, 27 Aug, 2010/
end
end
end
Matchers
rspec-rails exposes domain-specific matchers to each of the example group types. Most of them simply delegate to Rails' assertions.
be_a_new
- Available in all specs.
- Primarily intended for controller specs
expect(object).to be_a_new(Widget)
Passes if the object is a Widget
and returns true for new_record?
render_template
- Delegates to Rails' assert_template.
- Available in request, controller, and view specs.
In request and controller specs, apply to the response object:
expect(response).to render_template("new")
In view specs, apply to the view object:
expect(view).to render_template(:partial => "_form", :locals => { :widget => } )
redirect_to
- Delegates to assert_redirect
- Available in request and controller specs.
expect(response).to redirect_to()
route_to
- Delegates to Rails' assert_routing.
- Available in routing and controller specs.
expect(:get => "/widgets").to route_to(:controller => "widgets", :action => "index")
be_routable
Passes if the path is recognized by Rails' routing. This is primarily intended
to be used with not_to
to specify routes that should not be routable.
expect(:get => "/widgets/1/edit").not_to be_routable
rake
tasks
rspec-rails
defines rake tasks to run the entire test suite (rake spec
)
and subsets of tests (e.g., rake spec:models
).
A full list of the available rake tasks can be seen by running rake -T | grep
rspec
.
Customizing rake
tasks
If you want to customize the behavior of rake spec
, you may define your own
task in the Rakefile
for your
project.
However, you must first clear the task that rspec-rails defined:
task("spec").clear
Contribute
See http://github.com/rspec/rspec-dev.
For rspec-rails
-specific development information, see
DEV-README.